cat and dog, but when it counts
by leavenotrace
Summary: A couple of Eliot/Parker drabbles, mostly friendship, written for Saides, following her prompts.
1. NO dairy

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"No, Parker, I said no! No ice cream with a runny nose. Dairy creates phlegm!"

"You're mean!"

"You can have strawberries…"

"Hate strawberries!"

"Pineapple…"

"Hate pineapple!"

"Oranges … DON'T say it again, Parker!"

Raising a questioning eyebrow, Sophie turned to Nate. "Tell me one more time, why was it a good idea to let Eliot watch over Parker instead of Hardison?"

"Have you heard her complaining about the itching bandage in the last ten minutes?"


	2. she gets naked EVERYWHERE

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

He was from the South, for heaven's sake. A woman gets naked in front of you, unless you have a special relationship with her, you turn around.

Fast.

She, however, was too fast for him.

For him, the _hitter_, whose split-second reactions had saved all of them countless times.

Damn it, Parker.

You feed dreams in sleepless nights with those stunts, you realize that?

And this time, can you believe it, she'd outdone herself. The wall he had turned to was covered with a full-size mirror.

Yes, he closed his eyes.

Not fast enough, though.


	3. you make me breathe

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

Hardison lifted the pot's lid. "Ugh, no matter how healthy that is, I'm NOT gonna eat it!"

"Back off." Eliot came stomping into the kitchen. "Just back off."

He poured the intensely smelling mixture of sugar candy, onion pieces and blackberry leaves into a bowl and carried them away.

Parker, pale and bleary eyed, cautiously lowered her head above the bowl. A moment later she could, for the first time in hours, take in a full lung of air again.

"You make me breathe", she told Eliot and he pushed a sweaty strand of hair away from her face.


	4. Why always so close?

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"Parker, STOP doing that."

She scooted away from him.

Only to reclaim her position, way in his personal space, about twenty seconds later.

The meeting lasted two hours. Two hours of Parker shifting back and forth. In the end it wasn't only Eliot's nerves she was grating.

"Before you punish her…", Sophie told Nate, "…there's usually a method to her madness."

After the meeting, Parker rushed to the place where she slept, using rooftops as shortcuts.

Hundreds of bottles of shampoo surrounded her bed. Eagerly she started sniffing her way through them.

Which brand did Eliot use?


	5. You don't get naked unless…

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"You don't get naked in front of a man unless you … _like_ him, Parker", Sophie tried to explain.

"I like Eliot."

"_Really_ like him, Parker."

"What does that mean?"

"When your heart starts beating faster the second he enters the room. When you've spent all day with him and still want to see his face in the evening. When you can feel his voice on your skin."

"I understand."

_Two days later, Eliot via earpiece. _

"Sophie! I thought you had talked to Parker about this!"

He scowled at the wall.


	6. bain de Marie

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"Don't touch it, Parker."

She glowered at him.

"It's a bain de Marie, meant to heat food slowly and gently."

"Why is it called _Mary's bath_?" She eyed the melting chocolate in the inner container with wide-eyed fascination.

Eliot hesitated. Actually there were quite a few explanations. "It was probably invented by an ancient alchemist, Maria the Jewess, who lived in Alexandria between the first and third centuries AD. Some say she was crazy, but the old texts speak of her with nothing but uttermost respect."

The look on her face told him he had chosen the right one.


	7. it don't bend that way

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"It won't work, Parker."

"We _need _to get out of here."

"Your arm don't bend that way."

Course she tried nevertheless.

SNAP

Great. Now they didn't only have to deal with being tied up in a cellar that was slowly filling with water but also with a dislocated shoulder that had to – nobody knew that better than Eliot - hurt like hell.

"Keep very still. Any movement might... HOLD STILL!"

Parker managed to wriggle herself out of the restraints.

"Are you angry with me?", she asked afterwards.

"Don't do that again. Ever."

Totally puzzled, Parker asked Sophie for an explanation.


	8. you're being nice

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

She was hiding because she knew she had messed up.

Putting the team in danger – big no-no.

Eliot used a screwdriver to remove the grid, gave her gauze and disinfectant.

He waited till she had patched herself up.

"You're being nice", she whispered.

He shook his head.

"I'm going to bring you back to the others."

"NO!"

He was stronger than her and not going to leave her hurt in an air vent.

For a moment she struggled, but exhaustion and pain got the better of her. As he carried her to the van, she fell asleep in his arms.


	9. fever

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"Cold water will keep the fever down till Sophie gets her hands on the antidote." Nate's voice, very far away. "Parker, run Eliot a bath."

"Which bubble bath brand?"

"No bubbles, Parker. Just water."

"How boring."

Eliot hissed as they slowly lowered him into the tub, but then his overheated skin started cooling down and his vision stopped swimming.

"Get out", he barked at Hardison and Nate. "Can handle myself."

Relieved, they filed out.

Something poked his back. He shifted and pulled out a tiny object from underneath him.

A yellow bath duck.

He smiled, the first time that day.

_**A/N: Saides, your PM function is disabled again. **_


	10. immeasurably sad

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

Coincidence is a bitch.

It makes the wrong person look in the wrong direction at the wrong time.

An accident. A boy, knocked off his bike by a car.

_He_ was going to be okay.

But Parker had seen it all from her position at the table in the restaurant.

Eliot, the first to grasp the situation, embraced her firmly before she could run off. He carried her to the car and later up the stairs, till he lowered her onto the sofa, into Hardison's arms.

Sophie covered them both with a blanket while Nate, slightly trembling himself, made tea.


	11. no other option

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

Eliot's place has been blown up. Don't ask why, main point is, he can't stay there for a while.

Of course he could stay at the office - "'s not that you aren't hanging out here all the time anyway", Nate adds quietly.

Hardison's flat?

Sophie has a guestroom.

"Or you can stay at my place", Parker chirps.

Whoa.

Never ever has she trusted anyone enough for an _invitation. _

The room falls silent.

Eliot, in that warehouse?

The alternative would be a heartbroken thief.

No other option.

"Sounds great", Eliot all but groans and Nate pats him on the shoulder.


	12. hotels

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

Hotels are for breaking in. They're for using fake IDs and pretending you have more than you actually got.

The proper way in and out of a hotel is through the window, in the dead of night.

The "do not disturb"-sign is for cracking safes in peace.

_Nothing_ else.

Hotels are not for enjoying soft sheets, free bubble bath and room service.

"What do you think, Parker?", he asks and pulls her back into his arms.

"_Could_ get used to it…", she admits.

He presses his face against her back and she can feel his lips curl into a smile.


	13. chocolate

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

That expert _is_ right. There's no denying it: Chocolate targets the same area of the brain as heroin does. It has an opiate-like effect and contains traces of compounds similar to THC.

BUT there's nothing like the light in her eyes at the sight of hot chocolate with cream or the squeal she lets out when she finds mousse au chocolat in the fridge.

So he doesn't exactly intervene when Parker gets ready to push Mr. Expert into that fountain after demanding a tax on chocolate.

"Balance is the key", he growls as he helps him out of the water.


	14. no one to ask

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

He found her crouching on the floor, pieces of metal scattered all over the place. The remnants of a lock?

"Everybody has a skill", she said. "Makes us a team. Put these skills together, the job gets done. But what if you've got a question? It's your skill, but still there's a problem you can't solve. There's no one to ask. Nate just says "do it" and thinks you'll find a solution somehow. That's not helpful!"

"Explain it to me", Eliot said.

She looked doubtful and afterwards he was none the wiser, but she had figured it out.


	15. they change colors

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"Look! They change colors when you pinch them!"

"Parker, these are bruises on Eliot's back." Sophie's voice, very patient. "They are not to be played around with."

"But look at the green ones, they…"

"Eliot is in pain and we're trying to make him feel better by _cautiously_ treating his back with vitamin k cream."

"So no fun with the bruises?"

"No fun with the bruises."

Eliot reached backwards and grabbed Sophie's arm. "Next lesson in socially acceptable behavior, it's Hardison's turn."

"But he very rarely gets hurt", Sophie pointed out.

"There's an easy solution to that", Eliot snarled.


	16. Waiting for Godot

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part or person of Leverage. I'm just playing with the characters for entertainment purposes.**

"Can't they just call him?"

"No, Parker, they can't."

"Text him, then?"

"No, not an option either."

"Why not?"

"Just watch the play, Parker." Sophie was slowly losing her patience.

"She's right. Totally unrealistic, a guy with no phone in the 21st century."

"Not you, too, Eliot."


End file.
